Isaiah 44:9-20

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

The Absurdity of Idol Worship

⁹ All who make idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit; their witnesses neither see nor know, and so they will be put to shame.^{(A) 10} Who would fashion a god or cast an image that can do no good?^{(B) 11} All its devotees shall be put to shame; the artisans, too, are merely human. Let them all assemble; let them stand up; they shall be terrified; they shall all be put to shame.^(C)

¹² The blacksmith works it with a tool over the coals, shaping it with hammers and forging it with his strong arm; he becomes hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water and is faint.^{(D) 13} The carpenter stretches a line, marks it out with a stylus, fashions it with planes, and marks it with a compass; he makes it in human form, with human beauty, to be set up in a shrine.^{(E) 14} He cuts down cedars or chooses a holm tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. ¹⁵ Then it can be used as fuel. Part of it he takes and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Then he makes a god and worships it, makes it a carved image and bows down before it.^{(F) 16} Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he roasts meat, eats it,^[a] and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, “Ah, I am warm^[b] by the fire!” ¹⁷ The rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, bows down to it and worships it; he prays to it and says, “Save me, for you are my god!”^(G)

¹⁸ They do not know, nor do they comprehend, for their eyes are shut, so that they cannot see, and their minds as well, so that they cannot understand.^{(H) 19} No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. Now shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?”^{(I) 20} He feeds on ashes; a deluded mind has led him astray, and he cannot save himself or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a fraud?”^(J)